"Lab La Bla" in Berlin
15-16 june 2011
Altes Finanzamt | Berlin
“LAB BLA BLA” appears at this point of our journey as another reason for the connection between Art and Science, but this time with a special focus on language. Both poetry and science use words to communicate, but the different goals that guide them create deep differences in the meaning of the same word. In science, we recognise the cultivation of the accuracy of meaning, which is a necessity linked to its basic reproducibility mechanism. In poetry, we recognise the need to multiply meanings, to play with them sometimes to the point of subversion. In both, we recognise the capacity to add new words to our lexicon.
With the intention of exploring poetry influenced by the science advance, either through the introduction of new words or through scientific themes and concepts, this event will explore texts by Miroslav Holub (1923-1998), a Czech poet and immunologist. Basically a proposal to read and rewrite the knowledge that science builds. Part of the text was created by the interaction with technology, through the use of mechanisms of semi-random text generation supplied by Holub’s poems translated by Manuel Portela.
“The fact that I cannot imagine the present moment has always worried me. By the present moment I mean a conscious individual state or process, an experience; the larger scale present is rather easier to grasp. What is a moment, what is this moment, in which i evidently exist, unlike nature, which according to Whitehead’s famous quotation does not exist in a moment?”
“And: how long are we happy? Using my well-tested and reproducible method of taking off tight shoes, I cannot say I was happy for ten minutes after taking them off. Maybe those few seconds, followed by a reflection in the way of – oh, great, and also, damn, those shoes are tight! And another couple of seconds…”
Production Credits
Discussão e ideias: Alexandre Lemos, Emanuel Botelho, Laetitia Morais, Manuel Portela, Mário Montenegro, Rui Simão, Tiago Serra. Textos: Miroslav Holub com tradução de Manuel Portela e adaptação de Mário Montenegro. Direção Artística e Interpretação: Mário Montenegro. Vídeo: Laetitia Morais. Banda Sonora: – Emanuel Botelho. Iluminação: Rui Simão. Cenografia e figurino: Joana Cardoso. Coordenação do Laboratório Tecnológico: Tiago Serra. Design: Sente Design. Operação Técnica: Emanuel Botelho, Guilherme Barbosa, Laetitia Morais, Rui Simão e Tiago Serra. Penteados: Carlos Gago. Registo Fotográfico: Francisca Moreira. Registo e Edição Vídeo: João de Almeida. Produção executiva: Alexandre Lemos, Cassilda Pascoal, Emanuel Botelho.
With the support of
Ministério da Cultura | DG Artes, Fundação Bissaya Barreto, Ilídio Design, MAFIA – Federação Cultural de Coimbra, RUC